Category Archives: grant research

Q & A – How do foundations decide who to give grant money to?

I know this sounds like an elementary question to anyone who has worked in the non-profit field for any length of time.  But for many people who are just starting a non-profit, this is an important question.

The answer is complicated because there are actually many ways that a foundation will decide to give a grant.  The ones listed below are general in nature and not all criteria will apply to every foundation.  These are common, but the list is not exhaustive.

 
1. Field(s) of interest determined by the foundation’s board and defined in their bylaws.
 
2. Types of funding – Money isn’t money to a foundation.  If you want funding for a building, that’s a capital expense and not all foundations are willing to spend money on. Many foundations shy away from funding operating expenses although that restriction has eased a little in some cases with the state of the economy.
 
3. Relationships – Often a foundation will fund organizations and individuals they know and trust to do the most effective job with a grant.  Newcomers must establish these relationships over time and by proving they can do the job. Many foundations give a small grant in year one and assess performance, if an agency does well, sometimes subsequent requests can be larger.
 
4. Geography – Some foundations specify locations to give to excluding everyone else.  Some give nationally while others give internationally. It is important to look at previous grants funded to know where they will fund.
 
5. Types of Organizations – Foundations usually only give to other non-profit organizations so individuals have a harder time finding assistance from foundations directly.
 
Of course there are many factors that help determine the allocation of grant money.  These five are generally applicable to most foundations. It is imperative that grant seekers pay close attention to these five – at a minimum – in screening potential funding sources when seeking grants.
 
For more information about grant writing and non-profits see:
 
Grant Goddess Resources
Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Taking Your Grant Research Beyond the RFA

I thought I’d re-post one of our video Tips from the Grant Goddess. All of our video tips are 5 minutes or less.  This one, which happens to be the very first one we produced, is all about taking your grant research beyond the RFA.

Check out our YouTube channel for even more tips and videos. We’ll be producing a lot more quick video tips within the next few weeks, so subscribe to the channel to make sure you are notified of new ones as they come out.

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Other posts you may like:

If They Made a Movie About Grant Writing Consultants

Grant Writing Success:  A Numbers Game?

The Worst Reasons for NOT Writing a Grant

Help! Grant Writer Drowning in Paper!

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:Learn the secrets of the Pros!  Download your free copy of 12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers.

Taking Your Grant Research Beyond the RFA

I thought I’d re-post one of our video Tips from the Grant Goddess. All of our video tips are 5 minutes or less.  This one, which happens to be the very first one we produced, is all about taking your grant research beyond the RFA.

Check out our YouTube channel for even more tips and videos. We’ll be producing a lot more quick video tips within the next few weeks, so subscribe to the channel to make sure you are notified of new ones as they come out.

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Other posts you may like:

If They Made a Movie About Grant Writing Consultants

Grant Writing Success:  A Numbers Game?

The Worst Reasons for NOT Writing a Grant

Help! Grant Writer Drowning in Paper!

——————————–

:Learn the secrets of the Pros!  Download your free copy of 12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Research Includes Reading a Grant Sample

“Nothing succeeds like success” is an old proverb, but it applies well to grant writing today. Grant writers who want to be successful know what is wanted by the grant maker and one great way to do that is to read a grant sample of proposals that were successful in previous competitions.

Now you might be saying to yourself “Whoa! You’re talking about plagiarism,” and I’ll say y’all are wrong about that. I’m talking about reading for the purpose of research only, certainly NEVER copying or creating derivative works.

Reading a grant sample is no different than serving as a reader on a grant scoring team. You learn a lot about how to write a successful grant proposal by reading the work of other successful grant writers.

Here are some of the key things you should look for when you are reading a grant sample.

  1. Program structure including who is served, what kind of services, how much service was deemed acceptable, etc.
  2. What kind of organization got the money, public, private, non-profit?
  3. Who was the target audience? Is there a preference for a certain demographic, geographic area, or municipal size?
  4. What is in the budget? What will the funder actually pay for and what are the relative amounts in terms of budget categories?

Of course there is a lot more to look for including use of language, use of graphics, and use of charts and tables. Remember that successful proposals were those that the readers liked and recommended for funding. That’s the group you want to be in the next round of funding!

Creative Resources and Research offers grant samples that our staff has collected for various competitions at http://grantsample.com/. We also offer some of our own successful proposals there (with identifying information about the client agency redacted).

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Also check out http://grantoutline.com/!

Grant Research Includes Reading a Grant Sample

“Nothing succeeds like success” is an old proverb, but it applies well to grant writing today. Grant writers who want to be successful know what is wanted by the grant maker and one great way to do that is to read a grant sample of proposals that were successful in previous competitions.

Now you might be saying to yourself “Whoa! You’re talking about plagiarism,” and I’ll say y’all are wrong about that. I’m talking about reading for the purpose of research only, certainly NEVER copying or creating derivative works.

Reading a grant sample is no different than serving as a reader on a grant scoring team. You learn a lot about how to write a successful grant proposal by reading the work of other successful grant writers.

Here are some of the key things you should look for when you are reading a grant sample.

  1. Program structure including who is served, what kind of services, how much service was deemed acceptable, etc.
  2. What kind of organization got the money, public, private, non-profit?
  3. Who was the target audience? Is there a preference for a certain demographic, geographic area, or municipal size?
  4. What is in the budget? What will the funder actually pay for and what are the relative amounts in terms of budget categories?

Of course there is a lot more to look for including use of language, use of graphics, and use of charts and tables. Remember that successful proposals were those that the readers liked and recommended for funding. That’s the group you want to be in the next round of funding!

Creative Resources and Research offers grant samples that our staff has collected for various competitions at http://grantsample.com/. We also offer some of our own successful proposals there (with identifying information about the client agency redacted).

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Also check out http://grantoutline.com/!

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Research – Square Pegs and Round Holes

Non-profit consultant and grant writer, Derek Link, writes about the trials of grant research:

I used to think that grant writing was the hardest part of grant work, but now I know the harder job is grant seeking. I spend a lot of time looking for grants as part of grant research contracts for nonprofit organizations. It is grueling work. There are so many considerations to look at and so many factors to consider before making a decision to approach a funder with a request. Even with a good search engine, it’s a little like going to the mall with your girlfriend to find that perfect something…for someone.

The rigor of the search process is sometimes hard for a client to understand. They’ll give me a project they want funding for and say something like, “Here find a grant for this video project. I know there’s TONS of money out there for X.” The implication is that finding grants will be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, anyone with Internet could find it!

So I embark on my research looking for organizations that will fund the topic, the format of the project, the intent and scope of the project, the geographic location of the project, and so on. I look for funders who are accepting applications, who still have money after the crash, who haven’t changed their fields of interest, who weren’t victims of Madoff.

Often, I’m holding a square peg and about 99% of the holes out there are round ones. It’s a mistake to hammer the grant request in, and it’s damaging to the funding process in several ways:

  1. A grant project usually represents the energy and ideas of a group or an individual. They’re excited about it and want to move it forward, but only grant money will allow the project to happen. When a bunch of bad leads are followed, time is wasted on writing letters of inquiry and proposals, energy is sapped from the project, and eventually most people give up on finding a grant entirely
  2. Funding agencies, on the other hand, do not appreciate getting applications that are irrelevant to their mission. They offer grant opportunities to fund their mission, they will only fund your project if it aligns well with their mission. So if they are funding round pegs, don’t try to fit a square one into the opportunity. Some funders simply refuse to accept applications because the bulk of applications they received when holding an open solicitation were way off base and simply wasted their staff’s time.

So, make sure that your project fits the funder before making any approach. Due diligence in grant research is the only way to identify a good match between your project and a funder’s mission, and it’s a grind folks!

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Learn more about grant research by viewing one of the free grant research webinars at GrantGoddess.com.

Grant Research – Square Pegs and Round Holes

Non-profit consultant and grant writer, Derek Link, writes about the trials of grant research:

I used to think that grant writing was the hardest part of grant work, but now I know the harder job is grant seeking. I spend a lot of time looking for grants as part of grant research contracts for nonprofit organizations. It is grueling work. There are so many considerations to look at and so many factors to consider before making a decision to approach a funder with a request. Even with a good search engine, it’s a little like going to the mall with your girlfriend to find that perfect something…for someone.

The rigor of the search process is sometimes hard for a client to understand. They’ll give me a project they want funding for and say something like, “Here find a grant for this video project. I know there’s TONS of money out there for X.” The implication is that finding grants will be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, anyone with Internet could find it!

So I embark on my research looking for organizations that will fund the topic, the format of the project, the intent and scope of the project, the geographic location of the project, and so on. I look for funders who are accepting applications, who still have money after the crash, who haven’t changed their fields of interest, who weren’t victims of Madoff.

Often, I’m holding a square peg and about 99% of the holes out there are round ones. It’s a mistake to hammer the grant request in, and it’s damaging to the funding process in several ways:

  1. A grant project usually represents the energy and ideas of a group or an individual. They’re excited about it and want to move it forward, but only grant money will allow the project to happen. When a bunch of bad leads are followed, time is wasted on writing letters of inquiry and proposals, energy is sapped from the project, and eventually most people give up on finding a grant entirely
  2. Funding agencies, on the other hand, do not appreciate getting applications that are irrelevant to their mission. They offer grant opportunities to fund their mission, they will only fund your project if it aligns well with their mission. So if they are funding round pegs, don’t try to fit a square one into the opportunity. Some funders simply refuse to accept applications because the bulk of applications they received when holding an open solicitation were way off base and simply wasted their staff’s time.

So, make sure that your project fits the funder before making any approach. Due diligence in grant research is the only way to identify a good match between your project and a funder’s mission, and it’s a grind folks!

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Learn more about grant research by viewing one of the free grant research webinars at GrantGoddess.com.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Using the IRS Form 990 for Grant Research

By Derek Link, Non-Profit Consultant

The IRS requires that certain federally tax-exempt organizations file an IRS Form 990 as an annual mechanism for reporting income and expenses as well as other useful information. The 990 form provides information on the filing organization’s mission, officers, Board members, programs, and finances including assets, expenses, income, and grants.

All of this information can be useful to non-profit organizations looking for grant makers likely to make a grant to support their cause. The 990 gives information that is especially revealing for the purposes of grant research. A list of grants is included for that year. This information usually includes:

1. Recipient Agency Name
2. Grant Amounts
3. Agency Address
4. General purpose of the grant

I recommend using the 990 to gather the following information about the grant maker:

  • The range of grants that the agency made that year. 
  • The number of agencies that are similar to yours that received grants and the amounts and purposes of those grants.
  • The geographic locations where the agencies were that received funding.
  • The specific purposes of the grants. Were any of them for the same purpose for which you are seeking a grant?

If the 990 information for the previous year appears to make a grant maker a good bet for funding, I recommend going back one or two more years to review those 990 forms to verify the information.I also recommend looking at the current guidelines and even calling the grant maker (if such calls are allowable) to make certain that the grant you wish to submit will be of interest to the organization.

My last tip is this – if a grant maker indicates that it does not accept unsolicited proposals, look in the 990 form to see who is in charge of the foundation and who sits on their Board of Directors. You may have a contact among those names, or you could know someone who knows someone who would make an approach on your behalf or arrange a meeting. “Six degrees of Separation” can be a useful principle in making contacts that can lead to an invitation to submit a proposal.

Using the IRS Form 990 for Grant Research

By Derek Link, Non-Profit Consultant

The IRS requires that certain federally tax-exempt organizations file an IRS Form 990 as an annual mechanism for reporting income and expenses as well as other useful information. The 990 form provides information on the filing organization’s mission, officers, Board members, programs, and finances including assets, expenses, income, and grants.

All of this information can be useful to non-profit organizations looking for grant makers likely to make a grant to support their cause. The 990 gives information that is especially revealing for the purposes of grant research. A list of grants is included for that year. This information usually includes:

1. Recipient Agency Name
2. Grant Amounts
3. Agency Address
4. General purpose of the grant

I recommend using the 990 to gather the following information about the grant maker:

  • The range of grants that the agency made that year. 
  • The number of agencies that are similar to yours that received grants and the amounts and purposes of those grants.
  • The geographic locations where the agencies were that received funding.
  • The specific purposes of the grants. Were any of them for the same purpose for which you are seeking a grant?

If the 990 information for the previous year appears to make a grant maker a good bet for funding, I recommend going back one or two more years to review those 990 forms to verify the information.I also recommend looking at the current guidelines and even calling the grant maker (if such calls are allowable) to make certain that the grant you wish to submit will be of interest to the organization.

My last tip is this – if a grant maker indicates that it does not accept unsolicited proposals, look in the 990 form to see who is in charge of the foundation and who sits on their Board of Directors. You may have a contact among those names, or you could know someone who knows someone who would make an approach on your behalf or arrange a meeting. “Six degrees of Separation” can be a useful principle in making contacts that can lead to an invitation to submit a proposal.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com